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“Just so. Is that why you read this book? Or why you escaped to this room?” he asked, watching her carefully for a reaction.
“Can it not be both?” she asked.
They both stood there, smiling ridiculously at one another. Elliot so badly desired to know her name, not wanting this rather intriguing conversation with this stranger to end, when they both heard a sound from beyond the door. Their heads snapped toward it.
“If we are seen in here together, it will be most improper. I should go.” She tried to hurry past him.
“Wait, please.” Elliot reached out and caught her wrist.
It was a gentle touch, nothing firm, just a longing for her not to leave yet. She had supplied the one amusing interaction he’d had all night. Yet she tried to release her wrist too quickly and tripped on the rug.
“Careful!” He reached out for her arm to steady her, and that feeling passed between them again. That spark. This time, she must have noticed it.
They were standing too close together and she gasped just as that sensation occurred. He released her and backed up, once he was certain she was steady on her feet.
“I’m sorry. I did not want you to fall.”
“You do not need to apologise for that, Your Grace.”
“What did you call me?” Elliot froze, staring at her in amazement. This rather happy idea he’d had of the two of them meeting as pure strangers here tonight was dissipating before his eyes.She knows who I am.
“Your Grace,” she repeated the words. “I was saying you did not need to apologise.”
“You have been talking of me as well tonight, then? Like everyone else in that room? You must have done, to know who I am.”
He was aware how sour and bitter he sounded, but he couldn’t hold it back. He had been in a foul mood already, but the realisation that the one person he’d enjoyed the company of tonight was gossiping about him, too, crushed the goodwill that had been building.
“I…” She had no words for a minute. She just stood there, staring at him. It was the only answer he needed.
“Everyone is the same here.” He sighed and turned away, heading for the door.
“Wait, Your Grace!” she called after him, but it did little good. Elliot left as quickly as he could, gutted at the error he had made.
That spark doesn’t matter anymore, does it? Clearly, she is just like the rest of theton.
***
“I’m a fool,” Ophelia muttered after the duke had left. She hung her head in her hands, discarding the book she had been reading to the side.
She knew it was a faux pas to address the Duke of Northmore by his title when they had not been properly introduced, yet the words had fallen from her lips anyway, as if on impulse. She had been raised with propriety after all, and it was the way to address a duke.
“What must he think of me now?” She didn’t need much imagination to guess.
For all the smiles they had shared in that moment, that strange and rather exciting feeling that she had felt lingering in her gut, it couldn’t last. He saw her as he saw the rest of those standing in the ballroom: a gossiper.
“Do not stay in here anymore, you fool.” Ophelia strode from the room, with the pure intention of talking to the Duke of Northmore again.
Hastening into the ballroom, she looked around, searching for him, but she caught no sign. Margery was at the side of the room, still talking to the friend that had been with the Duke of Northmore earlier in the evening. Gertrude and Lady Chester were there too, talking amongst themselves. Beside them was Lord Chester, who seemed to be elbowed forward in Ophelia’s direction.
Oh, no.
She tried to pretend as if she hadn’t seen him and walked around the ballroom, hunting for the duke. She avoided standing candelabras draped in flowers and people gossiping with their heads bent together. This time, she heard something of their whispers.
“Oh, yes, not a penny to his name, I hear,” one woman said, ooh-ing and ahh-ing repeatedly. “What has become of the dukedom now? To think such a title will soon rest with a man in debtor’s prison!”
Ophelia ignored the rest of the gossip and walked on.
“Miss Townsend?” Lord Chester appeared in front of her. She pinned a smile into place, trying not to look too disappointed that she hadn’t managed to escape him. “How about that second dance? I do declare, there is no other lady here tonight I long to dance with as much as you.”
